BPMN Modeling with Simulations

Bazagi has released version 2.5 of Process Modeler. This version contains a Lanner Simulation Engine that can be used to analyze process flows, identify process bottlenecks, and optimize.

The simulation is very simple to set up, and comes complete with a number of Statistical Distributions. I was able to run processes very quickly at level 1, and by adding additional limits and constraints, levels 2 and 3. After a while, I started to receive the error message "The simulation has failed. Please ensure that your model is compliant to the BPMN2.0 standard and that it is supported by the Simulation engine."

As it turns out, the failure was caused by my usage of the Normal Distribution, with the negative three sigma value coming very close to zero - I believe this causes some inputs to be negative, and hence fail. The solution is to use the "Truncated Normal Distribution" and set the minimum value to 0.01 if you happen to be skirting with zero. This should prevent any negatives from occuring, and ensure a smooth BPMN execution.  

This is a great addition to an already wonderful tool.

Upcoming Event: Talk on Simulation Technology

Infowave shall be delivering a 3 hr presentation on The State of Simulation Technology on Saturday 27th November 2010 (0900 - 1200) at Sripatum University. Focus shall be on Military Simulations.